The Justice Department wants to make it easier for state and local police to spy on Americans, and retain the information they find for at least 10 years. The Feds want to streamline how the country's 18,000 state and local agencies share sensitive information with them, and simplify data collection for these organizations, which receive $1.6 billion from the federal government annually.
Critics worry that the plan does not adequately safeguard who has access to sensitive information. They also maintain that the Constitution forbids preemptive law enforcement in the absence of a crime.
The new US plan makes me think the former colony wants to be more like its big brother Great Britain. To see how, read more.
According to The Sunday Telegraph the average Briton has 3,254 bits of personal information stored in government databases. Officials can keep some of that data indefinitely! So what kind of dirt does the government dig up? — details about residents' shopping habits, mobile phone use, emails, locations during the day, travel, and Internet searches. Because companies, like banks and telephone providers, keep all this information on hand, it's easy for the government to assert their legal authority to retrieve it.
Have we traveled back to 1984, or are we just updating our crime fighting for the modern era?
Lacoste
all i can hear right now is the chorus of the freemasons song,"I've got a feelign somebody's watching me."
1How much more privacy can they take away from us? Geesh.
2it's all a false sense of security too - it's like we can't do anything without being tracked - and i'm not sure if it's a good thing or not. you think about all the electronic things that you do - which means tha you're being watched. if it's 'fast pass' on the highway, using a credit card, talking on your phone - you're always able to be tracked
3There is no good purpose served by the government's randomly collecting all this information on us.
4This is one of the reasons I don't like OnStar. Or even those grocery club cards. It's creepy to think of a big eye on me everywhere I go.
5Harts, I feel the same way about onstar. The fact that anyone can start, unlock, lock, or kill my engine from a remote location is not something I want in my car. Have any of you seen Untraceable?
6hartsfull... i agree with you on that one. those club card programs and your credit card records are all used by marketing firms to design market analyses and are sold to corporations looking for target markets for their products and, in the case of cities/municipalities, to prove their regions have the demographics needed to sustain a new walmarts, and the like. it reminds me of the discover card commercial that's been on TV lately where they say "America is a country of consumers... and there's nothing wrong with that". well, duh, of course discover card doesn't want to admit there's anything wrong with that! i wonder when people will get hip to this and decide to go from being consumers to being citizens again?
7i haven't seen untraceable, but with a title like that it could have been the story of my life. until a few years ago i had absolutely no credit. no cards, no loans, no history of anything. i thought i was doing the right thing, living without debt and paying cash for everything (you know, living within my means and not paying interest to anyone, which i find detestable)... then when i tried to find an apartment i realized my mistake. even with a really good job and far more than the rent x 3 income required, it was nearly impossible for me to be approved for a lease. i find it so ironic that you have to have debt to be given debt in this country. i still try to use cash for most things today, but now i have a car loan and some student loans that have established me as a "good risk" and i'm living the american dream -- owing lots of money!! sorry to ramble, this is a topic i'm very passionate about.
8YY, agreed. I hate how credit plays any part in renting or getting a job. I had the problem coming out of college of no credit. Made it nigh on impossible to find an apartment.
9i think the american 'coming of age' is when you finally hit $25,000 in debt.
10There was some commercial a couple years back, don't remember what it was for, but it had a guy going through his daily life talking about all the wonderful things he owned and his perceived perfect life. It ends with him mowing his small lawn on a riding mower saying eerily calmly, "I'm in debt up to my ears, someone please help me." I found it to be so true. So many people live so far beyond their means. SNL had a funny skit a while back about a new money book. You just open it and it says, "Don't spend more than you have." I loved it.
11I remember that commercial! I feel on edge just thinking about it.
Do you recommend Untraceable, GS?
12It is a good story, and well done. It is a bit graphic and disturbing in parts, but I think it is just setting the tone, it isn't gratuitous. So, in short, lol, yes, I do!
13Thanks! I'll have to check it out!
14i remember that commercial too, GS! it spooked me as well. sadly, it was advertising yet another product/service that you have to pay for. funny that was before this whole credit crisis began... now that would ring true for so many people. there was another commercial i remember from last year advertising visa where people are walking up to a cash register in sync with music, all making purchases in a perfect rhythm, of course using their visa cards... and then someone shows up with a check (or was it cash?) and throws the whole thing off. they are the cash pariah!! that made me so angry. but again, i have personal issues with credit that most would probably find extreme so these things usually get me going more than others.
15Good lord, that series of ads pissed me off too! For a couple of reasons. First, that if you use cash or check there is something wrong with you. Second, that we are in such a damn hurry all the time that having to slow down just a bit for someone else is a huge inconvenience. I think is spoke volumes about what is wrong with American society.
16i know my country sucks right now but this is the one thing us zimbabweans appreaciate, no debt. credit cards are so very rare and almost never accepted, student loans do not exist and a mortgage is a loan you get that you have to pay back with 6-12 months, so most people own everything they have and not the banks. my parents own their house, their cars and everything else that comes with it.
17YES YES YES. i agree. i knew i was getting old (i'm only 30!!) when i started getting pissed at cashiers for handing me my receipt, change, and bag all in one swoosh and then moving on to the next person in line before i'd even had time to put my wallet in my purse. there is a real problem in our society with people being hurried. i guess the only thing to do is just take as much time as you need (to smell the flowers perhaps??), and not let other people's negative energy bother you.
after all, when they are on their deathbed, i doubt these people will be remembering the time they groaned loudly behind you in line at the grocery store when you pulled out some coupons... right?
18"cashiers for handing me my receipt, change, and bag all in one swoosh and then moving on to the next person in line before i'd even had time to put my wallet in my purse."
YESSSS! How funny! I feel the exact same way! But, I just go right back outside and whistle while holding hands with Jude and we kick the cobblestones and are feelin' groovy! la di di da da da da, feelin' groovy!
19fascinating insight, nyaradzom... we are headed there now in the US. its harder than ever to get a loan (student, car, etc.), and i think it's only going to get harder in the years to come.
20I'm not too sure about what information they are passing back and forth, but if it is in relation to a crime, I am all for streamlining the process. I don't like that they want to keep the information for 10 years, and it doesn't specifically say the information passed is in relation to a crime. We need better communication among all government agencies.
21GS: hahha. yep! then i hit the corner and say "hello lamp post, whatcha doin'?"
22Wait! GS You get to hold hand with Jude?!? Can I come do that sometime?
23My Jude. She is two! So hands off dirty old man!
24I come to watch your flowers growin'!
25yesteryear i'm in canada and i don't have a credit card or any of those funny cards, i actually wanted to get a student line for credit at the bank cos it takes a long time to get tuition sent from my country and they said i had no credit history. is that a bad thing? i mean i'm not in debt, so isn't that good? back home you either have the money for it or you don't or if you're lucky your family will either buy it for you or loan you the money.
26yes... while others KICK the lamp post and scream while going through heavy starbucks withdrawals... strange world we live in, eh?
27
That it is YY.
28And Nya, when my husband and I bought our home, I couldn't sign on the mortgage papers because my no credit hurt us. When we refinanced a year or so ago I was able to sign in because I got a couple of cards that I spend $50 dollars on a month and then easily pay them. It feels so silly, but it is unfortunately necessary in this country.
29yes Nya, GS is right -- you have to do what is called "establishing credit". don't ask me how - when i got started i had to get a family member to cosign on a credit card... but my credit was already screwed up due to unpaid medical debt i had from an illness when i was 22 and uninsured. so did you get the card? if you did, do what GS said - make sure to pay it off in full each month.
30i didn't i was so pissed off i didn't call the bank back to her about other options. I pay taxes like clockwork, i have pension already put away for me by the canadian gvnt even though i'm not canadian and as far as i know i wasn't on any pension plan and i intened to leave next year. I'm good for all that they even take e.I from my cheque and i don't get it when i'm not working but I can't get a fracking card. it makes me so mad.
31hmm... so is your lack of credit the only problem? sounds like there is something else going on if you are trying to get a card through the same bank where you have an account. usually they will give you a $500 limit to start and after a few months you can ask them to up it.
32they say it's a lack of credit all international students get that here, you get rejected at least once and most try again and get it after a fight but i'm not interested, i have one more year so i'll deal with it. even to get a phone lol you get hassles cos youhave no credit. it doesn't matter if you have an account at the banks here they are all pretty f-ed up.
33hmm... in the states we have a cell phone company called 'metro pcs' that doesn't require credit checks or contracts - its pay as you go. the downside is they have awful reception. anyway - go forward with your credit-free life. if you're interested, there are lots of websites/blogs out there about people living credit free. you might check them out - if anything it will make you feel like you're accomplishing something rather than just feeling frustrated. best of luck to you.
34One thing you could do. Is get a credit card, but pay the entire balance every month. That's what we do. My husband refuses to have loans. Except for real estate, he insists on paying for things right away.
I had to stop reading at # 8. Only because I had to say what I was thinking or I might forget.
Also, I have to leave again and dang it I want to be involved at least a little!
35The club cards are weird. I actually always used to use my friend's (just using the phone number) and I liked to think we threw them off by both using it different states. It also weirds me out that my credit card company knows so much about me since I pay everything with it and then just pay it off every month, but I like the cash back.
36I am off to a dr.'s appt. Won't be back on till this afternoon. Happy posting!
37Bye GS!
38Have fun at the doctors!
JK
39fooey! It's time for me to go too.
40bye!
Hi, my name is Cathy and I'm going to check your cervix. lol, yeah it's a blast.
41Well, maybe you'll find some nice articles in the magazines in the waiting room.
42This is one of those things that's like a street light. Enough people get hit the city finally puts in a street light. In the case of privacy enough effective terrorist attacks and our privacy will be a treasure discussed in history books.
43In relation to what everybody is saying about credit and how people misuse it; I think credit is one of the biggest problems in American society. Both literally and figuratively. People feel entitled to something they haven't earned, so they put it on credit, and when they can't pay for it they declare bankruptcy. That's more or less the reason for the housing crisis. People want houses they can't afford, so they take mortgages without reading or understanding the fine print. Then they end up defaulting. Of course the underlying problem is that credit is too cheap because the interest rates are too low (thank you, Federal Reserve).
Anyway, my point is that people are not educated about these things. In high school you have to take complicated, higher math and science courses. You have to take theory of government. But there are no classes teaching you how to manage your money. Nobody that explains how to do your taxes. It's illogical. If we're trying to make good citizens in our public schools, we need to teach people how to do these things. Still, I have no sympathy for them. If a school won't teach you, it's your job to learn.
44michelin you're right. i've argued for personal finance classes in middle and high school for a long time. some people don't come from a family with good financial role models... i sure didn't. this makes it doubly hard to pull yourself out of a cycle of bad money management.
45"personal finance classes in middle and high school"
I agree they should be a prerequisite for graduation.
46So agreed!
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